PrintBook Review: Cooking the Cowboy Way
Cooking the Cowboy Way
Grady Spears
www.andrewsmcmeel.com
If you associate cowboy cooking withbarbeque, beef, and beans, you’re in for one Texas-sized surprise. In his latest cookbook with June Naylor, Grady Spears travels North America in search of food that celebrates what he calls the “cowboy way,” a lifestyle born of life in the saddle or on the trail. The cowboy-turned-chef visits kitchens from Florida to Texas to Alberta, Canada, gathering a varied, if not eclectic, collection of recipes inspired by campfires, chuck wagons, and ranch kitchens.
Dishes include plantain nachos with creamy black beans from the Bellamy Brothers’ ranch in the heart of Florida’s cattle country, lamb tenderloin with green-olive jam from Rancho de la Osa along the Mexico/Arizona border, cheddar pan de campo from Fred’s Texas Cafe in Fort Worth, and brown sugar-crusted porterhouse pork chops with apple-walnut slaw from the Taylor Ranch in Texas’ Big Bend country. While ingredients may vary from region to region, each recipe exemplifies local resourcefulness and flavor.
The author (whose latest venture, Grady’s Restaurant, recently opened in his hometown of Fort Worth) devotes a chapter to each of the kitchens visited, complete with large full-color photos, background information, historical notes, and suggested activities. And for Cowboy fans of a different ilk, there’s plenty of tailgate party fare. So, fans of good eating everywhere, come and “git” it.
Issue: June 2010
